Fifth London garage joins electric bus revolution

Plans to decarbonize London's bus fleet are continuing apace after it was confirmed Shepherds Bush has become the fifth bus garage in the capital to install a bank of electric bus charging units. UK Power Networks announced late last week it has completed work at the Sulgrave Road site to enable 36 new electric buses to charge overnight. The work, which was commissioned by bus operator RATP Dev, provides an additional 2.5MW of capacity to power buses on two of the routes operated out of the garage.

UK Power Networks said the system makes use of a "timed connection", which will allow the buses to reliably charge overnight while avoiding the need to install extra electricity cables and infrastructure. It added that the approach helped reduce both pressures on the grid and costs, ensuring maximum power requirements are met between 11pm and 6am when local electricity demand is very low.

The upgrade follows similar work at Waterloo Bus Garage in August 2016, which made it the first depot in the UK to 'go electric' resulting in 900 tonnes of CO2 emissions savings in its first year. It has since been followed by charging installations at bus garages in Willesden, Camberwell and Northumberland Park. Stephen Bradley, head of major connections for UK Power Networks, said the upgrades were delivering a host of benefits to bus operators and the public. "By enabling more buses to run on electricity instead of diesel, we bring another breath of fresh air for Londoners and we are pleased to be playing our part as the city looks forward to a greener future," he said.

Catherine Guillouard, chairwoman and CEO of RATP Group, said the project underlined the company's commitment to slashing emissions across its fleet. "We have been looking forward to the upgrade of this depot, which very tangibly demonstrates our commitment to clean and sustainable travel," she said. "RATP Group's aim to switch to 100 percent clean buses reflects our ambition to be an innovative and trusted partner of the city of London in its journey towards being a smarter and more sustainable city."

The project is part of a city-wide push to ensure all of London's buses are zero emission by 2037. However, advocates of electric and hydrogen buses remain optimistic that falling costs could see the switch to zero-emission fleets made far earlier. Overall, Transport for London is aiming to have 240 electric buses running on the network by the end of next year and for all new double-decker buses to be zero-emissions or hybrid. Every single-decker bus operating in central London is expected to be zero-emission by the following year.